Abstract
The main reason for tsetse eradication, in the past, has been to remove the restraint of disease on cattle production. It is now argued, that the major restraint is not disease but poor land made worse by overgrazing. An association between overgrazing and drought is recognized in South America, Central America and Australia. In Africa there is strong, but circumstantial evidence that overgrazing may be linked to climatic change. Tsetse populations may in the past have been a major restraint on overgrazing but with new advances in technology it is now possible for such populations to be “managed” in order to protect vulnerable rangelands. Such a concept would mean changes in the attitude of society to tsetse which should come to regard them as a potential asset rather than as a liability.
Résumé
La raison principale pour l’eradication de la mouche tsétsé dans le passé était de supprimer la contrainte que la maladie exerçait sur l’élevage du bétail: on démontre maintenant que la contrainte la plus importante n’est pas la maladie, mais plutôt la pauvreté de la terre, elle-même aggravée par la surexploitation du pâturage. On constate un lien entre la surexploitation du pâturage et la sécheresse en Amérique du Sud, Amérique Centrale et en Australie. En Afrique on a des preuves substantielles, bien qu’ indirectes, que la surexploitation du pâturage pourrait en fait aller de pair avec les changements climatiques. Autrefois les populations de mouches tsétsé ont certainement limité la surexploitation du pâturage; étant donné les progrès récents technologiques, il s’avère maintenant possible de “gérer” ces populations afin de protéger le pâturage vulnérable. Un tel concept impliquerait des changements dans l’attitude de la société vis-à-vis de la mouche tsétsé; on arriverait à la considérer comme un avantage et non plus comme un désavantage.
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Ormerod, W.E. Africa with and without Tsetse. Int J Trop Insect Sci 11, 455–461 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742758400012881
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742758400012881